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Archives for August 2009

Police crackdown

08.19.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 29 Comments

I missed our Sunday ride two weekends in a row while on vacation, and it turned out that the first weekend  was much more eventful than usual.

The B ride took a loop route that included some moderately challenging hills. Everything was going well, until the group reached an intersection just two miles from the finish. It’s a stoplighted intersection, with a right turn to a southbound road with a bike lane at that point.

The light was red for the bikers. They rode up to the intersection, and turned right without coming to a complete stop at the light. Next thing you know, an Austin Police car was pulling them over.

TicketPenny gets her ticket while two other club members stand by in disbelief.

The officer issued tickets to four riders for failing to come to a complete stop. Each ticket carries a fine of $217. Meanwhile, one of the riders saw three cars roll through the same red light while making a right turn onto the same street, and wondered why the officer wasn’t ticketing them, since a two-ton automobile is a greater hazard than a 20-pound bike.

The officer told the group he was issuing citations because of the grief the Austin Police Department has been getting over cyclists breaking traffic laws. Letters to the editor in the newspaper seem to be getting more vociferous lately over cyclists, but I don’t think it’s any different here than in any other city.

The recipients of the tickets agree that they did not follow the letter of the law — they did not come to a complete stop — but they also think that since no safety issue was involved, the officer should have let them off with warnings instead. Now, they’re faced with paying a large fine. Pippa, the ride leader for the week, said, “I shall go to Court just because I’m British and like a good argument.” The others are still debating whether to join her.

One benefit of the incident has been increased discussion within the club about obeying traffic laws more strictly. The B ride this past weekend was led by a club member who is a League Certified Instructor, and required stops at all lights and signs. He said there was not a single instance of a rider rolling through a stop sign, and called it an “impressive” sight.

In the end, I suppose the ticket episode will be beneficial (although those who got the tickets will have a bad taste in their mouths for some time to come) because of the new emphasis on obeying laws within the club. It seems like a tough way to learn the lesson, though. Have any readers run into similar police enforcement crackdowns in your areas?

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Categories // Safety Tags // police, traffic laws

Kevin Underhill

08.18.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 6 Comments

Kevin Underhill
Kevin Underhill

One of the unexpected rewards of writing a blog is coming into contact with people I would never otherwise get to know. One of these was Kevin Underhill. I was stunned upon returning from Hawaii yesterday to learn that Kevin died Sunday of injuries sustained in a crash during the Thursday night Driveway race in Austin. The Austin American-Statesman ran the story this morning.

It turns out he was a reader of Bike Noob, although not a noob himself. As far back as 1985, Kevin took a monthlong bike tour through Germany and Austria. Last year, he did a three-month tour around Japan. But he described himself as a “recreational/fitness rider.”

He emailed me back in June after he thought he saw me while riding in the country south of Austin. “I did my first group ride in Austin yesterday and was between Buda and Kyle on Jack C Hays Trail when a saw a man coming the other way wearing a red shirt with a big ’50’ on it and it finally clicked that that might have been you.  Sorry for not waving, I was using all my energy to try and stay with a paceline.”

Others have commented elsewhere about how nice a guy Kevin was. He checked the blog that day to see if I mentioned the ride, and when he found that I had fallen, offered detailed directions for an alternate route.

He also told me that he lived in the Cedar Park area, northwest of Austin, and commuted between there and South Austin not far from my house twice a week. That “commute” for him is an extension of the Dam Loop, one of Austin’s classic bike rides, and roughly 35 miles one way.

Kevin wasn’t concerned with his image. “I ride a black touring bike with a pink rear luggage rack, usually with panniers on when I commute.  A somewhat less than normal recreational rider. :)” He wore plain bike jerseys, and unless in an organized ride that required it, he preferred to ride without a helmet. It’s ironic that he was wearing one in the race when he crashed.

In his Bike Journal profile, Kevin said he was “having delusions about trying a bike race.” He noted that in my post on my time trial back in May, he’s partly visible wearing red shorts in the picture of the check-in table. It was his first attempt at a time trial, too.

I never met Kevin, but because of our contact through the blog, I know I’ll miss him.

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Categories // Community Tags // people

Heresy

08.17.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

It’s heresy, I tell you. Away for a whole week in Hawaii (Maui, to be specific) and not one day of bicycling!

ViewThe view from our hotel room. Yep, another lousy day on Maui.

It’s not that we didn’t plan it. We were looking into bike rentals before we left for the islands. But on Maui, the big biking experience they push is the ride down Mt. Haleakala, the 10,000-foot dormant volcano that dominates the eastern half of the island. It’s a 37-mile ride, and to get the full experience, you start at sunrise at the top of the volcano in temperatures in the 30sF (+2C).

But our first two days found us dealing with the remnants of Tropical Storm Felicia (at one time a Category 4 hurricane) that rained out our activities. We drove the road up Haleakala to the national park entrance, and were advised not to go any farther because of the poor weather conditions. The drive back down the mountainside, with its constant hairpin turns, unsettled Pat, and put me off of any ideas I’d had of doing the ride, too. So we decided to look for alternatives.

The road from our resort area near the historic city of Lahaina features a wide shoulder in both directions. The downside to that is the amount of traffic on the road. Depending on time of day, it can be heavy, and the drivers don’t appear to be bike friendly.

We had plenty of other activities to cram into the remaining days once the rain stopped, like golf and horseback riding. But we never did get around to renting bikes and riding. However, on four of the seven days we spent there, we started the morning with a brisk half-hour pedal of the spin bike in the hotel’s fitness center. I programmed in some hill work, and played with different levels of effort. It was a good way to start the day, and we decided Maui ranks as one of the top vacations spots we’ve ever visited.

Some interesting biking issues popped up while I was gone, and I’ll be looking at them later this week. But for now, I have to readjust my body clock.

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Categories // Travel Tags // Travel

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